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Priests of the Codex
Once a priest gets a glimpse at the true structure of the multiverse, could they ever go back to the narrow-minded view of the world that their god preached? I think not! Suddenly the Powers (gods), including the priest's own god, are seen as just another, albeit higher, tier in the interplanar ecology, with the Codex as the ultimate tier, perhaps (at least in their Codex-affected minds) even the cause of everything. Conversion becomes an instant source of priests for the Book. No need for a complicated temple heirarchy for recruiting and training new priests. Indeed, no need for temples! "The Multiverse is my temple." By having a priest "parasitized" by the Codex in their dreams, there is now not only a wandering priesthood exploring the planes, but a mechanism for allowing PC's to join it. If the DM's purpose for having the Codex touch a PC is to convert them into a priest of the Codex, and that PC fails their initial 2 attempts at breaking free, the Codex can grant a "special" (and flexible) bonus to the 3rd attempt to save (since the Book may consider having the priest as more beneficial then draining them completely). If the PC then becomes a priest of the Codex, all lost levels are replaced as they now realize the truth of the multiverse (as far as the Book is concerned). All knowledge and experience that the touched character has, as well as all future experience, becomes known to the Codex. If a priest of the Codex were to ever actually encounter the physical Codex itself, he would never under any circumstance open it (and become attuned). One does not look at the face of your god, let alone attempt to possess him. Priests of the Codex, usually just referring to themselves as "Priests of the Book" (since virtually no else knows they even exist), can sense each other (as being fellow "Priests of the Book") when within visual range. Strangely enough, they cannot sense the current owner of the Codex, although they may come to believe someone is the current owner if presented with enough evidence. Priests of the Book will not reveal fellow priests or the owner of the Codex, even under magical coersion - the strength of an elder-artifact fortifies them. They maintain access to all the spell spheres that they formerly had access to, plus Astral (if they did not already have access), and often maintain the pretext of still being priests of their former god. They may continue to visit and pray in temples of their former god, the occupants of those temples never suspecting anything other then a visiting fellow priest. Any training is done in the dream state, and thus expends no real resources, although training (in the skills and spells of their former religion) can also be done in their former temple if they wish to reinforce the illusion. Most gods will not even know that their follower is no longer a follower (again, the power of an elder-artifact surpasses that of any god), and will continue to grant spells. There are a very few gods, Boccob for example, who may actually have a shot at knowing what happened to their former priest; however any god powerful enough, lucky (or unlucky) enough, *and* knowledgeable in the appropriate areas (such as arcane knowledge) to ever find out that one of their followers was somehow affected by the Codex also knows enough to not want to take any chances by interfering. They may observe in order to try to figure out what the former priest's intentions may be (most gods won't even realize that the Codex itself is sentient, and has purpose or intent). Priests of the Book tend to be observers of arcana and of history, knowing that they are a funnel for knowledge. They will become wanderers and adventurers (if they weren't already). The less adventurous among them are satisfied just to be present, while others are more pro-active in their search for knowledge. Any event that mimics one of the rumored effects of the Codex will surely attract any Priests in the area. While silently recognizing eachother, they will observe and explore as individuals, almost never actually working together (or even openly acknowledge eachother) unless absolutely necessary. There are a variety of ways that a DM could incorporate this information, depending on which edition of D&D they use. In 1st or 2nd Edition games, a priest kit could be constructed. In my 2nd Edition game, Priests of the Book are simply specialty priests. In 3rd Edition, a specialty priest or even a prestige class (for those prestige class addicts) could be constructed. Even within a single campaign, it would be within the spirit of the intents of this article to have different PC and NPC priests of the Codex have different skill and class descriptions. Whatever method of character construction the DM decides upon, they should begin with the PC or NPC's original class as a base. Those skills remain with the character. The Priest of the Book then also gains access to the Astral sphere of spells if they do not have it already, and may also gain access to the Traveller's sphere. Skills/feats/non-weapon proficiences (again, depending on the game edition you use) that the character can add to his/her pre-existing skills should be related to travel, knowledge and secrets, arcane magics and history, detection, observation and divination, the planes, and the Powers (gods). The DM should pick and choose, since clearly no character should be able to learn all of those skills... thus every individual Priest of the Codex can be unique and specialized in a few particular areas. Observers of present history or magical milestones, unearther of ancient history or ancient magics, searchers of arcane items, explorers of planes or of secret places, connoisseurs of spellcraft or alchemy, chroniclers of the actions, interactions and intents of gods. All of these special mandates require different skills. Specific skills such as gather information, disguise, decipher script, etc. could also be useful to the character's new mandate. Priests of the Book may also join other groups in order to facilitate their hidden agendy; groups such as the Seekers (both the Greyhawk and Spelljammer organizations), the Dustdiggers, the Silent Ones, the Sons of Marchanter, and any of a variety of large universities or wizards guilds. Again, I will not place here a detailed "kit" or "prestige class" because not only does every character start off with a different base, but you should be creative and customize every individual according to what you feel will work best with your campaign and what your player may find most interesting. Every Priest of the Codex is as unique as his or her own history.